Sleeping in a monastery in Kumano kodo

we are going to travel by car from Wakayama to the Kumano Kodo for 2 days. we would love to sleep in a monastery on the route. 2 questions:
1. are 2 full days enough from Wakayama to Kumano Kodo and back?
2. can you recommend us to a monastery to sleep in?
thanks a lot

The Kumano Kodo is a long treck that takes weeks to complete from memory.

Are you looking at staying at Mt Koya and travelling via Wakayama?

If this is the case - then your time is fine. It's probably easier to come directly from Osaka or Kyoto though.

If you want to do the shrines in the south which are highly linked to the Kumano Kodo - then you dont have enough time.

When I stayed at Mt Koya (almost a decade ago), I stayed at the Eko-In Temple (https://www.ekoin.jp/en/) which was fine. Note that meals are pretty close to vegan and there are (or at least when I visited) no kombinis in Koyasan.

Also note that many of these temples will be filled with western tourists trying to experience the same as you - as it's probably the easiest location in Japan to stay at a temple.

We are not intending to go through the whole Kumano kodo. For that we shell need a week or two. I meant to see mainly the three taishas: Hayatama, Hongu and Nachi. We hope to menage to sleep in a monestary on our route or close to it. We shell probably start from Shingu.
Does it make sense now, timewise? And do you have any ideas where to sleep?
Thanks

Hi there,

I stayed in Shingu and visited Kumano shrines last summer. It is a great idea to rent a car, I regretted not doing so. And I can tell you that Shingu area is great to visit, so just go there and explore!

I had spotted a temple in the area, but unfortunately it was fully booked at my dates. But you could try this one: https://en.oterastay.com/. It looks amazing!

thanks for your answers and good advice. I've managed to find a temple hotel eventually.

We did something similar to this on our past trip.
My recommendation would be that there is lots to see apart from the taishas, so if you can possibly add another day or two, and hire a car, you could make this a very fun 4 or 5 days of holiday, instead of trying to squeeze it into 3!or 3 days

The Kumano Kodo shrines are nice but it does take time to visit them. As they are shrines locations in a rural and sparsely populated area which is rapidly depopulating, finding temple lodgings will be possible but difficult.

I also agree that with your time limits a car will significantly allow you to achieve this as buses are slow and infrequent.